


That's the Spirit

by midoriverte



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-13 00:15:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9096820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midoriverte/pseuds/midoriverte
Summary: “I thought you said you weren’t planning to decorate the store for Christmas?”
“I wasn’t,” Kaneki said in a dry voice. “But then, after the tenth time you said ‘but it’s Chriiistmaaaas, Kaneki!’ I figured it’d be easier to just give in.”





	

“I thought you said you weren’t planning to decorate the store for Christmas?”

“I wasn’t,” Kaneki said in a dry voice. “But then, after the tenth time you said ‘but it’s Chriiistmaaaas, Kaneki!’ I figured it’d be easier to just give in.”

Hide chose to ignore Kaneki repeating his words in such a mocking tone.

Kaneki was cleaning the store after the customers had left, leaving the little coffee shop a disaster after the rush of couples who came to celebrate Christmas Eve together.

“Yes but… there is a fine line between decorating for Christmas and making it look like Christmas threw up in the place.”

“Is there?” Kaneki said, with his mouth twitching up in what might have been a smile.

Hide’s heart fluttered at that, he loved making Kaneki smile, even if it was at his own expense.

Tinsel hung from every available space, fake snowflakes adorned the windows and the sides of the counters, he had even managed to find fluffy fake snow with glitter in it and placed it in every corner, there were snowman and Santa centrepieces on every table, and, of course, a large Christmas tree with twinkling, colour-changing lights in the back corner.

“It’s very… sparkly,” Hide concluded.

“Don’t you like sparkle?” Kaneki asked.

“You just don’t strike me as the…sparkly sort.”

“I can sparkle,” Kaneki said, with a straight expression, though Hide knew him well enough at this point to hear the suggestion of a pout in his voice.

Hide grinned to himself behind Kaneki’s back. He knew other people found him a little… off-putting. But Hide had had a soft spot for this awkward half-ghoul since first he stepped into his coffee shop.

By which he meant he found him really hot.

Of course, his attraction went beyond the physical once he got to know him. He couldn’t blame people for finding Kaneki extremely frightening, but Hide had come to learn that Kaneki’s slightly imposing façade was just a method of self-defence after living in the cut-throat ghoul world for so long.

He could literally rip a person apart with his bare hands. But still. Façade.

In Hide’s defence, it was hard to find him at all frightening after about the third time he’d seen Kaneki frantically look for his glasses when he was literally wearing them.

He had also saved Hide a piece of cake, which he was now eating as he watched Kaneki clean the kitchen. It was hard to see someone as threatening when they gave you cake.

Kaneki rolled up his sleeves so he wouldn’t soak his shirt as he washed down the counters. Hide bit his lip as he saw Kaneki’s rather impressive forearms.

“Can I help?” Hide asked in a voice that was rather weaker than he intended.

“We’ve discussed this before. You are a hindrance,” Kaneki said, lips twitching into a half-smile again.

“I prefer to think of myself as a creative genius.”

“No.”

“Well, I gave you the idea to decorate for Christmas!”

“And now I have to take it all down in a few days,” Kaneki said with a sigh.

“That’s the price of being festive.”

“Hmm,” Kaneki replied, distracted by scrubbing the sink (which Hide helpfully put his now-empty plate into, receiving a glare from Kaneki). Hide took the opportunity to admire Kaneki’s arms in action.

He truly had to do something about his feelings for Kaneki. Hide was no love expert, but he had a feeling that when you were getting turned on by watching someone wash a sink, your crush was getting out of hand.

The problem was that, as much as Hide knew Kaneki, it was still a little hard to read him sometimes. He was well-practiced at hiding his emotions behind a mask of indifference. And Hide really had no way of knowing how Kaneki would react should he finally confess.

He knew, eventually, that something would have to change between them. But he wasn’t in a hurry to upset their equilibrium.

“Are you working here all by yourself?” He asked, by way of making totally natural and not at all forced conversation.

“Touka’s cleaning up in the stock room, which is a disaster, we let Nishiki go home because his girlfriend was giving us sad looks,” Kaneki replied.

“Fair enough,” Hide said, casting his glance around the room.

“Did you really have to decorate in here?” Hide mused. “No one here will see it.”

“ _We’ll_ see it,” Kaneki retorted as he finished cleaning the sink and (much to Hide’s disappointment) rolled his sleeves back down. “Believe it or not, even I don’t want to work in a dungeon devoid of holiday cheer.”

Hide grinned and put his hands up in surrender. “All right, I get it. You like holiday sparkle.”

Kaneki ignored that. “I think I forgot the mop in the backroom, if you want to make yourself useful you can come with me and carry the bucket.”

Hide might have been offended, but knew this was Kaneki’s way of spending as much time with him as possible.

He made to follow Kaneki, but stopped short when they reached the doorway.

“Kaneki.”

“What.”

“What is _that_?” Hide grabbed Kaneki’s elbow and pointed above their heads.

“That,” Kaneki said. “Would be a holiday decoration.”

“You know what I mean!” Hide said. “Is that _mistletoe_?”

Kaneki raised his eyebrows “Is there a problem with that?”

“N-no it’s just… _why_?” Hide spluttered.

Kaneki shrugged, “It’s just something people do.”

“But… why _here_?” Hide was at a loss for how Kaneki could fail to understand the situation he had landed them in. “Why not in the front door?”

“And get total strangers to kiss?”

“But then the only people who get to kiss are the employees!”

“Well, generally we don’t go through the doors at the same time. We’re always carrying things, it’s bad safety practice.”

Hide was going to strangle this beautiful, infuriating man.

“ _We’re_ under it together!” Hide finally managed to say.

Kaneki looked up above them. “Well, I guess you’re right,” he said, seemingly unperturbed by this earth-shattering information.

After a moment of Kaneki doing nothing, Hide daringly prompted, “So, uh, are we going to-?”

Kaneki gave him an unreadable look.

“I mean, we don’t have to!” Hide said quickly. “It’s a dumb tradition anyway-”

He cut himself off abruptly when Kaneki placed his hands on his shoulders and gently, but firmly, pushed him against the doorjamb.

Hide didn’t even have time to process that this was really happening as Kaneki pressed his mouth firmly against his. He had been expecting, at best, a quick and almost joking peck on the lips and nervous laughter after about how dumb this was. 

_This_ , however, was something else entirely. This was all too deliberate and _urgent_ and Hide was both stunned and very pleased by this development.

He was kissing Kaneki back without even realizing he was doing it, he brought his mind to the present and focussed on how amazing Kaneki felt against him.

Kaneki broke away from Hide, flushed and a little breathless.  He looked at Hide with a question in his eyes that he didn’t get a chance to voice out loud, because Hide put his hands on the side of his face and pulled him in for another kiss.

Hide smirked when Kaneki made a small (and adorable) sound of surprise, and soon took the lead in the kiss once more. A development to which Hide had no objections whatsoever. He soon found, in a discovery he could only describe as “ _hot_ ”, that Kaneki had been holding back before. Now that he knew Hide was just as interested in kissing as him, he was not holding back anymore.

Kaneki pressed himself against Hide, whose back was pushed firmly against the doorjamb in a way that probably should have hurt but somehow didn’t. Kaneki’s tongue flicked against Hide’s lips in a question and Hide parted his lips in an answer.

He groaned when Kaneki slipped his tongue into his mouth and reached up to tangle his hands in Kaneki’s hair, desperate for something to grab onto.

Kaneki made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a whimper and Hide felt him grab onto his waist so firmly that Hide was positive it would leave bruises – an idea he found oddly appealing.

“ _What_ are you two doing?”

The two broke apart and gave Touka what could only be described as a “deer in headlights” look.

“It’s tradition,” Hide said.

If Kaneki hadn’t still been holding onto Hide (apparently reluctant to let go), he would have buried his face in his hands in embarrassment.

“Tradition,” Touka repeated in a voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Yes,” Hide said.

Touka turned to Kaneki, “Well, I did wonder why the hell you were putting mistletoe up here, guess now I know what your scheme was.”

“I didn’t-,” he tried to protest.

“Yeah, yeah,” Touka waved her hand dismissively. “It’s almost clean in here, you two can get out of here, but just remember you and that asshole Nishiki owe me big time.”

“I…thank you,” Kaneki said in a voice that was so surprised and genuine that it made Hide’s heart melt.

Touka rolled her eyes, and pushed past them on her way to get the cleaning supplies that Hide and Kaneki never managed to get to.

“ _Did_ you plan this?” Hide demanded, once Touka was out of earshot.

Kaneki bit his lip and nodded, looking embarrassed.

“Why didn’t you just… ask to kiss me?” Hide asked, amused but a little annoyed.

Kaneki shifted uncomfortably. “I thought this would be more…I thought it would…” he trailed off and finally mumbled. “I was too embarrassed to just ask, I’m not too good with words.”

_He really is way too cute_ , Hide thought to himself. This was the most expressive he’d ever seen Kaneki, and his fumbling attempts at conveying his emotions just solidified his crush all the more.

“So,” Hide said. “Since you now have the rest of the night off, maybe we could head back to your place and pick this up where we left off and not get interrupted?” He may have wiggled his eyebrows at the end of that sentence.

Kaneki flushed a deep red but muttered, “That… sounds nice.”

Hide grinned, and pecked Kaneki on the lips.

“Merry Christmas, Hide.”

“Merry Christmas, you adorable idiot.”

“…What did you just call me?”

**Author's Note:**

> If I may quote sondeneige, "I like to think he's more affronted at the adorable part than the idiot part"


End file.
